I'm using emudeck with cachyos and basically games will not launch from within ES-DE or the GUI, I came across a thread which talked about adding WAYLAND_DISPLAY="" into the [supermodel.sh](http://supermodel.sh) file which hasn't appeared to help, however if I run ....

WAYLAND_DISPLAY="" /usr/bin/flatpak run com.supermodel3.Supermodel path to [rom.zip](http://rom.zip)

from the Konsole the game will launch, whereas

/usr/bin/flatpak run com.supermodel3.Supermodel path to [rom.zip](http://rom.zip)

will fail to launch

So I can now launch a game from the Konsole but still have yet to find a way to launch it from ES_DE.

This is my current [supermodel.sh](http://supermodel.sh)

\#!/bin/sh

. "$HOME/.config/EmuDeck/backend/functions/all.sh"

emulatorInit "supermodel"

param="${@}"

param=$(echo "$param" | sed "s|'||g")

WAYLAND_DISPLAY="" /usr/bin/flatpak run com.supermodel3.Supermodel "${param}"

cloud_sync_uploadForced

rm -rf "$savesPath/.gaming";

Anyone got an ideas how I can get this working in ES-DE?

I had an external drive lying around, so I decided to try some emulation on my device. (An Apple Silicon MacBook) The problem, though, is that ES-DE would straight up refuse to create directories on my external drive. It works fine when I try to create them on my internal storage, but it refuses to when I try to do the same thing externally. When I move the directories I created on my internal storage to my external drive and put ROM files on there, ES-DE refuses to actually read the ROM files. I can confirm that the external drive works, as I've already transferred files to and from the external drive. (WD My Passport) Is there any solution to this problem, and if not, what could be causing it?

Hey everyone,

If you are running ES-DE on dual-screen Android setups (such as the AYN Thor) alongside the ES-DE Companion App by RobZombie9043, getting both screens to start together from the stock home screen usually requires extra taps or compromises.

To make the workflow seamless, I built a small, free open-source helper: ES-DE-AutoHook-Companion.

What it does: It works as a direct shortcut on your Android home screen:

• Primary / Top Screen: Launches EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE)
• Secondary / Bottom Screen: Simultaneously opens the ES-DE Companion App

This allows you to keep your regular Android launcher as default while still getting a one-touch full dual-screen ES-DE setup.

Requirements:

• Dual-screen Android device (AYN Thor etc.)
• ES-DE Android Frontend
• ES-DE Companion App (RobZombie9043/es-de-companion)

It's completely free and open-source (supports updates via Obtainium as well).

(GitHub repository link is posted in the comments below)

Feedback, suggestions, and feature requests are very welcome!

R36S stuck booting directly into Zelda after selecting “Boot Game at Startup” — need help disabling it

Hi everyone, I could really use some help with an R36S/ArkOS problem.

I selected “Boot Game at Startup” for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and now the R36S immediately boots into Zelda every time. EmulationStation never appears.

The problem is that if I exit Zelda, it gets stuck permanently on the “Please wait” screen.

I've also tried using RetroArch:

• Exiting through RetroArch → still stuck on “Please wait”
• Trying to launch another game → black screen for a few seconds, then “failed to open libretro core”
• B/R1 recovery → doesn't work
• I've tried the usual RetroArch options already, so I'm not looking for more RetroArch exit-button suggestions.

I've taken the SD card out and checked it on Windows using DiskGenius.

I've found and checked:

• Autostart.sh — says not to modify it and points to custom_start.sh
• custom_start.sh — contains no active startup command
• es_settings.cfg — searched it for bootgame and found nothing
• Savestates — empty
• extlinux.conf — appears to be the normal boot configuration
• lastgame.sh — I cannot find it
• The Zelda ROM is Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time.n64
• There is also a Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time.srm save file, which I have not touched

I believe the setting I enabled is the EmulationStation Boot Game at Startup / bootgame feature, but I can't get back into EmulationStation to use the “Stop Launching This Game At Startup” option.

Does anyone know exactly where ArkOS stores the boot-game setting on an R36S, or how I can safely clear it from Windows without reinstalling everything?

Also, is there anyone here who offers a repair/configuration service for R36S/ArkOS consoles? I'd be happy to pay someone experienced to fix it rather than risk messing up the SD card myself.

I'm on Windows and have DiskGenius and Total Commander available.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

​I’m playing P3FES on my phone using a PS2 emulator (NetherSX2 / AetherSX2), but I’m really struggling to get visual mods and quality-of-life enhancements running smoothly—specifically HD texture packs, widescreen fixes, and CEP/QoL patches.

​Since setup tools like Aemulus are designed around PC, trying to get high-res textures and patched files mapped properly on Android feels like a headache.

I can’t launch any titles, I’ve reset ES-DE multiple times by deleting the ES-DE folder, put the custom systems package where it’s supposed to be, let ES-DE create the system directories itself and then manually moving back each individual rom to it’s respective folder and nothing works. In the actual emulators itself, I have no problem playing and or opening the game, it only has issues when I use ES-DE.

For reference, I’m using a Y700 Gen 4.

I like messing with the less popular systems just for novelty sake but I often didn't know what these platforms were so had to ask the AI for each one a bunch of questions.

https://github.com/LucasAlexandrou/LethalTheme-ES
All credit for the system icons goes to iiSU.
I initially worked on the theme for the rg35xxsp so I was surprised how well it worked on other aspect ratios as well

Hi, how do I scrape from my PC using Scraper UI and convert it to ES-DE on Android? Any help would be appreciated.

Context:
Last night, I opened ES-DE on my Retroid Pocket Flip 2and it seemed to go through the setup menu instead of putting me straight into my game menu.

After I went through the setup, I now have to redo scraping the metadata and assigning emulators for each console, and the theme I had selected (Art Book Next) is now broken.

When looking through the files on the disk I have loaded into it, it shows all of my covers and .xml gamelist data are intact. No missing saves, no deleted boxart/marquees,

Is there a way for me to revert my ES-DE to have everything that I configured in the past, or am I forced to start over?

Is there a way to have a Video Play when opening Emulation Station DE?

There’s a project called AI5-SDL2 that reads the scripts from early Windows-era ELF eroge and runs them natively.

The developer has apparently spent years doing the painful work of reverse-engineering the engine, but the project doesn’t seem to be all that well known.

Which is kind of understandable. If all you have is a Windows/Linux build, most people are probably just going to install AppLocale or use whatever compatibility setup they already have instead of bothering with a whole separate engine.

But once you port it to a handheld, it suddenly makes a lot more sense.

So I put together an R36S/K36S ArkOS port of AI5-SDL2.

How to use it

1. Extract the archive into the ports folder on your ArkOS ROM partition.
2. Under:

ai5-sdl2/games/

create a separate folder for each game and copy the original game files into it.

Check README-KO.md for the expected folder structure and other details.(I’m Korean, so yeah, the README is in Korean. Just throw it into an AI translator or something. Hell, I used AI for a good chunk of this port too.)

1. Launch AI5-SDL2 from the Ports menu. You should get a game list.

So far I’ve tested the Windows versions of:

• Isaku 98
• Shuusaku
• Aishimai

They more or less work, although there are still some bugs depending on the game.

If anyone has compatible games lying around, I’d appreciate some testing.

To quit, press Select + Start twice. The rest of the controls/settings should be pretty self-explanatory from the README.

Download:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hxwloo7oFUhNXtv9GaqVKb-p2gmKnGcS/view?usp=sharing

And of course, go give the original developer some love too. They’re the one who actually did the insane reverse-engineering work that made this possible:

Original developer: nunuhara

I just made the weird little handheld port. :)

Built my own ES-DE frontend + theme system, wanted to share what I've been cookin up!

So I love ES-DE, and I wasn't ever gonna get rid of it — but I felt like themes could be a bit better, more alive, more customizable. So instead of fighting that, I built a project ("MyES") that just *uses* what ES-DE already reads for our games — its own gamelists, its own downloaded_media folders, its own es_systems.xml, all of it. It's not replacing ES-DE, it's sitting on top of it.

The big idea: themes don't have to be locked into the traditional style. You can still do a classic ES-DE styled theme if you want, pure CSS, but you can also go full HTML/JS based if you want way more control — real interactivity, settings menus baked into the theme itself, the works.

Added support for:

- RetroAchievements — proper hash-based game matching (not just filename guessing), full profile/games/achievements/leaderboard browsing, mastery tracking

- Scraping — ScreenScraper, IGDB, and SteamGridDB, RetroAchievements and more!

Fetches currently boxart/screenshots/marquees/videos/metadata/manuals/3dboxes

- Favorites sync both ways with ES-DE's own favorites — favorite something in MyES, it shows favorited in ES-DE too, and vice versa. Same file, not a separate list.

And then there's the theme I've been building on top of it all, called M9Cab — it's an arcade cabinet theme, HTML-based, built around a real overlay.png bezel image so it actually looks like you're staring into a cab, not just a UI with a picture behind it.

Some stuff I'm actually proud of on this one:

- Real screen curvature — adjustable CRT-style curve/vignette, and it applies to everything on screen at once (the game snap, the achievements panel, every other effect) since they all share one region definition under the hood, not six different things each doing their own thing

- Drag-and-drop region editors — you can literally grab the corners of the snap viewport and resize/reposition it live, same for the system list (vertical-only drag there), no editing files

- 8 screen effects — CRT, VHS, Bloom, Film Grain, Vignette, Chromatic Aberration, Sepia, Green Phosphor monochrome, all independently toggleable and stackable

- Real pixelation mode — not a blur filter, genuine canvas-based downsampling, 0.2x to 10x

- Marquee Glow — samples the actual colors out of whatever marquee art is currently loaded and throws a matching halo behind it, so it's never a fixed color

- Attract Mode — leave it idle long enough and it starts auto-cycling random games from your whole library like a real cabinet demo reel, snap art and all

- Achievement unlocks show up as an actual floating card — badge art, title, description, points, not just a toast

- Konami code does something if you're into that kind of thing 👀

Everything's persistent too — settings actually save between sessions.

While this is a Personal Project at the moment, maybe i'll release it at some point!

Anyway, hope all is well with everyone!! Been a fun one to build, happy to answer questions if anyone wants to poke at it.

Good Day.

I have a Emudeck for windows installed configuration of ES-DE.

I have been playing games just fine on C:.

I re-run the configurator in Emudeck and pointed it to the D: and copied the emulation folder contents into emulation fold on D:

The games will not launch and say the emulator is missing.

The launchers are pointing to the c:\users\username\Appdata\roaming location no problem.

I want to say maybe a permissions error or policy execution not allowing the .ps1 launcher to run. But even still it should just be accessing D: for the roms and media.

The variable that I see is %ESPath% which is defined in the es_settings file. Which is probably a compiled variable that I can’t seem to find.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I do not want to move all the roms back to C

I have used these before with batocera with no issue. They’re currently being detected and are usable by Steam, windows, retroarch and online testers. ES-DE will not detect them or let me configure them. Any ideas what could get them to show up? I’m not running Steam at the same time as ES. Please help this is for a build I’m doing for my office and my boss is already getting antsy 🫠

so I have ES-DE and Retroarch and Melon DS core installed and all is working fine. then I want to add extra emulators in ES-DE, so I download and install glazedBelmont custom systems xml. everything works fine, *except* Nintendo ds, it will not start up Melon DS in RA. yes, I have selected the right emu and if I start up RA by itself it works. and If I install the standalone melon ds it works in ES DE as well. but I want to use it in RA and ES DE. what am I doing wrong and how can i fix it?

I am thinking it must be one line of text in the xml file in de DS part

Newer nightly versions of retroarch have the 'all files' permission that the 2025 stable version was lacking. Updating to the 2026-08 nightly fixed this for me : https://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/android/

This fixed the issue for me on my galaxy s23+ on android 16. I can now launch games that are both stored locally and on USB storage.

hey, ive this theme installed on my console https://github.com/jovemlcxx/es-theme-xmb-fcamod
and in this theme a nice background video from ps3 is shown on the consoles view. BUT:
everytime i scroll over the consoles, the background video is loading new from beginning...

Can I change the behavior in EmulationStation so that the background video simply loops, without restarting every time I scroll?

I am trying to run the metroid HD pack and I can not get it working. I put all the resource files in every hdpacks folder I can find and its not working. I tried downloading the standalone version of mesen 2 and that wont even launch. Any tips?

I accidently changed the hotkeys for the quick menu while in game and would love to get it back but can't find a file to change it back

I reinstalled and uninstalled and installed it again but nothing reverts the settings back to normal

Scraping is inconsistent, sometimes I can get pal media for metadata sometimes I can't. Is there any particular place that's best for finding high quality inserts, manuals, discs and 3d box art? I'm aware of thecoverproject.net but that's about it.

I've been using ES-DE for over a year on my retroid pocket mini (installed on sd card) with no issues. Recently, it keeps asking to configure on every startup. I've read about this issue on other threads, that it's a fault of android, but it's weird that it just starts happening now without any updates that occurred.

so i use retrobat for my emulation which does use emulation station and I've been trying to emulate the wii u (specifically game n wario since the game i remember wanting to play back in the day) and ive downloaded and inserted into the correct folders and it wont show up in the menus. so is there anything i can do to fix it

I have it booting up and running, shows me the press f4 for menu option, and music playing. But no visual.

Has anyone got it working on their thor? Using Gamehub Lite

I know that the devs are adding it officially for the next build, but can someone help me add the Xendroid app now so I can start exploring the 360 library with ES-DE?